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Monday, May 7, 2012

Well, it's been a hell of a school year and I guess I'm technically done (spring semester grades are in and I'm not taking any summer courses) and yet, not exactly done. I'm doing a research project in the Chem department with my faculty mentor over the summer and today was our first rather serious meeting about things wherein he's all "we're doing this and this, go get access to SciFinder." SciFinder's rather exciting, actually, as it cross-references a lot of PubMed. And suddenly my summer research project has blossomed into about four of them (four times the presentation at the national meeting! four times the ahhh!) and the faculty mentor/PI is making noises that I should add a course on for Fall, a one-credit course in Undergrad Research Methodology, too. That semester is already pretty full with Organic I, Physics I, PreCalcI (review of I & II in prep for Calc I next summer - OMDG, no I don't really *have* to take Calculus but I get the impression that it would be a good idea, and I do, as of this writing, actually like math), and A&P II with a notoriously difficult professor, while teaching a lab of A&P I, possibly a lab of Zoology or Bio 101, and quite probably being a peer tutor in the Chemistry department. So that would be 16 credits and quite possibly a ticket to the looney bin, but we'll see. Precalc I should be more time-consuming than hard, I'm hearing that Physics I is much the same, but Organic and A&P II will attempt to eat my face.

That said - they said that about several courses this year and my GPA for this year is a nice and high 3.8 (B in Cell because... well, that's a whole 'nother rant.)

This summer is research, and it's interesting and demands I learn new stuff on a steep learning curve. I tend to do well with that combo, and since the learning curve is in a subject that's exactly within the purview of this guy who sits/stands within ten feet of me, I feel pretty secure. If only the ILL system weren't currently down for summer maintenance, but it is what it is. The articles will just be delayed for another day.

Meg is currently memorizing the most heart-wrenching song from Toy Story II, the one Sarah McLachlan, she of the heart-wrenching ASPCA commercials that make you want to tell the screen "YOU TAKE MY MONEY AND YOU RESCUE THAT BEAUTIFUL DOG I WILL EAT RAMEN FOR A MONTH I DON'T EVEN CARE" while weeping maniacally. Yeah, her - anyway, this one's another heart wrencher about how this doll was fantastically happy and delighted with her girl, who loved her and they played together and she was adored until the day her girl totally threw her away into a donation box, thereby giving the doll not just a/one abandonment issue but a whole attractively leather-bound set of volumes of issues. Meg is hoping to perform this at the school talent show and she's damn good at it and I will probably cry buckets watching it. I tear up and have to concentrate on something else while the song plays in the freaking movie, much less when my daughter is singing a song about being abandoned. Oy.

Saturday and Sunday were just great - I just cooked and cooked and cooked. Friday night was a properly muddled pair of mojitos for the hubby and I while we watched some Dr. Who. Saturday was market day, so I sold eggs and came home to make strawberry rhubarb pie and strawberry freezer jam
, yesterday was a huge pot of new potato-cauliflower-broccoli-leek-garlic scape puree soup that's delicious hot with some cream in or cold with none, asiago polenta (for tomorrow's dinner), basil-pistachio-sauteed garlic scape pesto, arepas venezelanos con queso cotija (for whenever and also breakfast) and while doing all of this I caught up on a metric buttload of some tv series that I like via Hulu+ AND knit the first sock of a pair and started in on the second. All this while hugging and kissing on my girls and just generally being more relaxed.

Ahem. Yes. I might have a problem with wanting to stay busy in my "relaxation." But really, being bored is a bit torturous to me, so busy me is usually a happy me. But in the meanwhile my deadlines are largely my own to make or break with no consequence. Tomorrow, my PI is away for a promotion thing and I'm working from home with some print research, so it'll be nice to sleep in, have a coffee and a nice walk while I listen to an audiobook, and then engage the brainpain while I knit some more - in large part I'll be doing craptons of reading, which I can do while knitting all but the most complex lace patterns. It keeps my hands busy while my brain zooms in on what I'm studying.

So. Onward. Still want to be a doc. I've been volunteering at the local hospital since September and even if I totally wash out, I'll still want to do it. I've been following the Chief of Staff (!!) since January (!!), which is convenient because rural medicine is exactly what I want to do. I have time now to read a book he's recommended (Rapid Interp of EKGs) and another one that a friend dared me to read (50 Shades, gag a maggot, y'all). Plus all this other reading for the research project.

Good thing I read quickly?

Well, possibly more later - heck, since it's summer, possibly more in general!

Plurk

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